Grizzly Bear

Slashing chords. Gentle folk finger picking. Big crashes. Strings. Kaleidoscopic synths. Yelps. Whispers. All these things pop up at some point during the four minutes and thirty-eight seconds of "Sleeping Ute", the twisting first track released from Grizzly Bear's as-yet-untitled fourth album, due out September 18 via Warp. "There's not a lot of songs," says singer/multi-instrumentalist Ed Droste, of the 10-track LP, "but they go a lot of places."

The album was recorded over the past year in New York and Cape Cod, after recording sessions in Marfa, Texas proved unfruitful. "We were like, 'We're ready to do this!'" says Droste, about the aborted Texas retreat. "Then, we got there and recorded 12 songs and were like, 'This isn't quite there.'" The group eventually found their footing, in part thanks to an increased focus on collaborative songwriting within the band. "As we get older, more confident, and more mature," says the 33-year-old Droste, "we're becoming more comfortable with stepping on each other's toes."

"The good news is we're not doing Veckatimest Part II.
All of our albums sound like us, but they're definitely not the same."

Pitchfork: How does this new record compare to your previous work?

Ed Droste: It's very in-your-face-- the drums and vocals are clearer and louder. It's not as dreamy and pastoral and sleepy as past efforts, and there's a lot of raw vocal takes, which is something we don't normally do. I used to want five layers of my own voice so that any sort of problems within the vocal take would be smoothed out, but there are a few songs on the album where it's very a much a single voice performing-- you can hear the cracks and the moments where it's not perfect.

Lyrically, it's definitely our most verbose album as well. It's funny, because I think back to a song like [Yellow House's] "Colorado", where I was basically singing 10 words over and over again for five minutes straight-- and that's it. There's nothing on this album like that. There's a lot more there, verbally, and it's definitely emotionally charged.

Pitchfork: How were songwriting duties split up for this album?

ED: With Veckatimest, there was the sense that if you heard someone singing a song, you could assume that they wrote the lyrics and the melody. That was their song. But this time around, there's so much crossover. There are melodies that Dan [Rossen] wrote that I ended up singing and writing lyrics for, as well as piano things that I wrote originally for myself but Dan took and used as a springboard for his own thing, with words that came from me. We've never done anything like that before. Chris Bear and I did a writing retreat together; Chris Bear and Chris Taylor and I did a writing retreat together; Dan and Chris Taylor did a writing retreat together. Every collaborative permutation happened. There was a lot more openness to band members saying, "I think you could change the chord here," or "This line sounds a little awkward." We traded off duties a lot more.

Yellow House was very much fully composed when we brought to the table. We were like, "OK, we're gonna record this," and we did it. It was great, but since the ideas were done, there wasn't as much room to putz around with it. This time, because we started working together at such an early point in the writing process, there are very few moments on the album that started out as pre-formed ideas that were brought to the table. There was much more openness from everyone in the band to spur a collaborative spirit, which was really different.

As a band, we went away for what seemed like a long time. We took a break after all that touring, so coming back together to try to write and record was like being in junior high again-- after you go away for the summer, the first couple of weeks are slightly awkward when you get back to school. Then, you get back into the swing. Everyone keeps getting older and their tastes are constantly evolving, and it's always exciting to see where people are. The good news is we're not doing Veckatimest Part II. All of our albums sound like us, but they're definitely not the same.

Pitchfork: Veckatimest was a big breakthrough for the band in terms of popularity. Did you feel any pressure following it up?

ED: I don't think any sort of pressure or expectation made anything harder. Making any album is hard. When I hear about someone who can go into a studio and just jam out songs in two weeks and be done, I'm like, "I don't know how you do it." We're four very creative people that have been working together for seven years, but every album has been difficult because we all have distinct opinions. It's a total democracy. There were definitely road bumps along the way, like people disappearing for various reasons-- getting married, going on a honeymoon, whatever. That stalled things. But there was no fighting or anything like that.

By the end of all the touring for Veckatimest, there was such a level of exhaustion that I really needed to pretend I wasn't in the band for a little bit. I needed to be back in my life with my friends and my spouse, and live a day-to-day existence that had nothing to do with music. That was really good for everybody. We didn't necessarily get rusty, but we weren't constantly playing with or seeing each other. We had to become reacquainted with each other after the six-month break.

When we came back, everyone's got different demos, and you're like, "Whoa, you've definitely been listening to different stuff than I have, how do we find a way to marry these ideas?" That's a challenge, always, but it's also what makes it exciting. Having such disparate viewpoints, musical tastes, and ideas, and then finding common ground is what makes me excited to make music with the band.

Pitchfork: Daniel Rossen released a solo EP earlier this year. Is that something you'd ever consider?

ED: At the moment, no. I write a lot with Chris Bear, but I'm still in the mindset of wanting to give my best songs and ideas to the band right now. Not that I don't think Dan is doing the same thing-- he's totally brought some his best material ever to the new album. I just think Dan's more prolific than I am, and he has a lot of ideas that maybe don't feel as Grizzly Bear-related, which is totally understandable. Same with Chris Taylor. You also have to remember that Dan is an extremely accomplished guitarist. I'm much more of a songwriter and a singer than an instrumentalist. The idea of me standing on stage with any instrument and trying to play in front of an audience is already nightmare-inducing for me. [laughs] I don't know how a solo performance would work.